We focused in 2008 on analyzing the expression of apoptosis-related molecules in the eye and addressed two issues: (1) differences in expression between the fetal and adult mouse eye and (2) differences in expression between eyes with inflammation induced by Th1 or Th17 cells.[unreadable] [unreadable] 1. We analyzed in fetal and adult mouse eyes the expression of two groups of pro-apoptotic molecules, namely, (i) Bad, Bak and Bax, that belong to the Bcl-2 family and are involved in the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis, and (ii) Fas, FasL and TRAIL, that belong to the TNF family and participate in the extrinsic pathway. Using quantitative PCR we found that transcripts of Bad, Bak and Bax were more highly expressed in the fetal mouse eye, whereas Fas, FasL and TRAIL had greater expression in the adult eye. These differences in expression patterns suggest that different mechanisms of apoptosis are prominent at the fetal and mature stages of the mouse eye.[unreadable] [unreadable] 2. Expression of pro-apoptotic molecules of the intrinsic pathway, Bad, Bak and Bax, was only slightly higher in inflamed eyes as compared with naive controls. In contrast, transcript levels of extrinsic pathway molecules Fas, Fas-L and TRAIL were strikingly higher in inflamed eyes than in naive control eyes. Interestingly, whereas Fas transcript expression was similar in Th1 and Th17 recipient eyes, expression of Fas-L and, in particular, of TRAIL was higher in Th1 than in Th17 recipient eyes.